1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to shopping using a mobile device at a physical location.
2. Related Art
Consumers and the general population are utilizing mobile devices, such as smart phones, more than ever before and not just to make and receive calls. The number of users, devices, and device capabilities continue to increase. One of the reasons for this increased use is the ease and/or convenience of performing tasks with a mobile device. These include accessing content, such as through the Internet or Apps, taking and sharing photos, videos, and music, playing games, listening to music, watching videos, shopping, and performing financial transactions, such as sending and receiving money.
Service providers are thus becoming more and more important for these mobile device users. Merchants, retailers, and marketplaces, such as eBay, Inc. of San Jose, Calif., enable users to shop online through their mobile devices. A payment provider, such as PayPal, Inc. of San Jose, Calif., allows users to complete an online shopping process by enabling users to send and receive payments through the mobile device. Thus, a user can find an item and make the purchase through the mobile device, and then have the purchased item delivered to the user. One difficulty with mobile device shopping, however, is a small screen and keyboard, making it hard for the user to search for items using the device, and the limitation of typically being able to run only one application at a time on the device.
For online transactions, consumers typically place items into a cart on a merchant or retailer website and make a payment directly to the merchant or through a payment provider service. For the former, payment can be made by providing credit card or bank account information. For the latter, the consumer may access an account managed by the payment provider, authorize payment, and have the payment sent to the merchant by the payment provider. The purchased items are then typically shipped to the consumer or the consumer picks up the items at a designated location, such as a store.
Although online shopping may be desirable in many situations, users may still want to make purchases at physical stores or locations. Thus, it is desirable to provide methods and systems that aid the physical shopping experience.